Monday, November 15, 2010

Hello everyone, this is Lorajean from Lorajean’s Magazine & I am so happy that Dee Dee has asked me to participate in the Give thanks Blog Event. What a treat!

With the economy the way it is these days, I am very thankful for affordable paper crafts. I don’t want to spend my money on crafts when I need to be saving it for the holidays. With that in mind I decided to make a Fall advent calendar from papergrocery bags. This is nice because not only is it recycled and therefore great for the environment, but it is also free.:) Keep reading because below I teach all of you how to make this!

Each box in the calendar holds a piece of candy, creating a fun way to countdown toThanksgiving. Every year I like to confiscate the Halloween candy from my kids and slowly distribute it, this is a great way to do that. Bonus: Since Thanksgiving falls on the 25th this year, I can reuse this advent for Christmas!

To make this you need:

5 paper grocery bags

number stamps

white craft paint

Here are the steps:

Cut 50 squares (6in x 6in) out of the 5 paper grocery bags

Fold25 lids and 25 bottoms. (Hereis a video I made teaching how to fold larger boxes using wallpaper, the tiny boxes in this Fall advent are folded the exact same way but with smaller paper.)

Stamp, stencil or hand paint the numbers

Fill with leftover Halloween candy

I displayed my Fall advent in a nook that has 5 little shelves, how convenient, but you can display these any way you like. You could line them up on you mantle, stack them up like a pyramid, or even hot glue them to poster board and hang them up on the wall. Happy crafting and happy Thanksgiving!